Professor Henry L. Hecht is donating $50,000 through The Henry L. Hecht Family Fund to help fund a new Staff Attorney position at the Equal Justice Society.
Prof. Hecht is the Herma Hill Kay Lecturer in Residence at Berkeley Law. He has provided significant support for several of EJS’s implicit bias conferences, numerous annual galas, and was instrumental in funding the full-length “Remembering 1619” video, which captured the captivating and illuminating artistic performance marking the 400 years since Antoney and Isabella arrived at Jamestown and the suffering and triumph, sorrows, and joy of Black people during the past four centuries.
“On behalf of the Board and my colleagues at EJS, I would like to express our deep gratitude to Henry for helping fund our new Staff Attorney position and for his continued support of our legal efforts and artistic endeavors,” said EJS President Eva Paterson. “Henry’s generous donation means that EJS will be able to play an even stronger role in fighting the discriminatory discipline, transfer, and segregation of students of color and students with disabilities, essential work for us to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.”
Through its law and policy work, EJS educates the legal community about modern forms of discrimination and the legal barriers that prevent effective remedies for bias through policy advocacy, convenings and conferences, scholarly articles, amicus briefs, articles in the popular press, and social media.
EJS also advances implicit bias theory and social science research in legal jurisprudence and lends its expertise on implicit bias and structural racism to partners and allies as co-counsel in discrimination cases.
In addition to reducing racially discriminatory discipline of Black and Latino students, EJS’s efforts have also opened college admissions opportunities for Black and Brown students and provided illegally withheld critical COVID relief funds to incarcerated people and their families.